You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both Mac and Windows by using the ExFAT file system. You can select the ExFAT format when using the Disk Utility to format the drive. The ExFAT format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated FAT32 format. Formatting the disk will erase all of the data on it.

Steps

Part 1

Opening Disk Utility

1

Plug the drive into your Mac.

2

Click the "Go" menu. To find this, click your desktop and then click the "Go" menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen.

3

Click "Utilities."

4

Double-click "Disk Utility."

Part 2

Selecting the ExFAT Format

1

Highlight the drive you want to format. The connected drives are listed in the left frame.

2

Click the "Erase" button. This can be found at the top of the Disk Utility window.

All of the data will be deleted from the drive when you format it.

3

Enter a name for the drive.

4

Click the "Format" menu.

5

Click "ExFAT" from the "Format" menu. This format is compatible with Windows and Mac (and Linux with additional software). It supports drives and files of virtually any size.[1]

You can also select "MS-DOS (FAT)," but the drive will be limited to 32 GB and files to 4 GB.

6

Click the "Scheme" menu.

7

Click "GUID Partition Map" from the "Scheme" menu.

Part 3

Formatting the Disk

1

Click the "Erase" button. This is at the bottom of the "Erase" window

2

Wait while the disk is formatted. Larger disks will take longer to format.

3

Click "Done" when the format is complete.

4

Use the drive on Windows and Mac. You can now add and remove files from the drive on Windows and Mac. [2]

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Warnings

Move or copy all your data and files from the hard drive you are about to format over to a separate hard drive. The formatting procedure will erase all the data and files currently saved on your hard drive.